As we head into the colder months, there’s no better time to come together and spread a little warmth! 🧣❤️ We’re excited to announce that our office is hosting a special Blanket & Toy Drive on Saturday, November 16th, from 10 am to 3 pm, and we would love to see you there!

Here’s how you can help:

Bring your donations of new or gently-used blankets, warm clothing, toys, or gift cards for teens to our office on the 16th, and as a thank-you for your generosity, we’ll be serving up complimentary hot chocolate and fresh popcorn. It’s our way of making this a cozy and enjoyable event for everyone involved!

Can’t make it on the 16th? No problem!
We’re also a proud drop-off location for the Realtors Care Blanket Drive, running from November 12th to 19th. You’re welcome to swing by anytime during those dates to leave your donations. Office hours are Monday-Friday 9am to 5pm. 

By giving just a little, we can make a big impact for families in need this winter. Let’s come together to bring warmth and joy to our community!

Event Details: 📅 Date: November 16th
⏰ Time: 10 am – 3 pm
📍 Location: #103 5830 176a Street, Surrey BC V3S 4H5
🍿 Enjoy hot chocolate and popcorn with your donation!

• blankets, sleeping bags

• warm clothing - coats, jeans, pants, sweaters

• scarves, gloves, mitts, hats

• NEW socks

• NEW underwear

• NEW unwrapped toys

• gift cards for teens

Thank you for your support and generosity. We’re looking forward to seeing you on the16th!

IMG_3391 2 from Bettina Reid on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our families to yours...from All of Us at the Bettina Reid Group!

The above video is the 1st of a series of memories I wanted to share. Please bare with me! Each video is less than 30 seconds, so promise it won't take up too much of your time if you decide to invest in this particular blog.

This is our 27th Reid Family Christmas so there are lots of memories to share. This one is from our 3rd Christmas but the 1st one my husband and I had in our 1st home together. As a young couple we didn't have a lot of money, so we cherish the cheesy homemade ornaments still to this day! I have always wanted a fancy themed tree...but just can't quite go that route with so many special ornaments to put up.

Reid Family Christmas Part 2 from Bettina Reid on Vimeo.

2nd in my series. Love my 1st ever disney ornaments! They've become a big part of our Christmas Tree every year, so much so my eldest daughter keeps claiming that she gets to take one of them with her when she moves out on her own one day! I think not! 

Reid Family Chirstmas Part 3 from Bettina Reid on Vimeo.

Even though all the ornaments hold a special place in our hearts. These are the ones we get to cherish forever! There's nothing like the decorations your kids make for you.

Reid Family Christmas Part 4 from Bettina Reid on Vimeo.

When our daughter was little I ran a daycare and each year I would make ornaments for all my kids including my daughter! I wanted them to have their own decorations for when they grew up. This was the start of us building her collection. All of my kids are grown up now and they tell me those ornaments are still a part of their family tradition...which warms my heart.

We posted this article back in 2019 and thought it would be worth sharing once again. With the pandemic this last year there is concern that seniors may be driving more and we found this great guide...although American based still relevant for Canadians. A guide to help senior drivers and passengers travel more safely amid the pandemic. 

How Seniors Can Find the Perfect Home for Aging in Place

More and more seniors are choosing to age in place - growing old in their homes as opposed to an assisted living community. Modern technology and higher standards of in-home care are making this an option for more people. However, some seniors can’t age in place in their current homes for a variety of reasons. Here is a great link to why many shouldn't stay in their homes alone: Should a Senior live alone. Here are some great tips on how to find the perfect new home in which to age in place.

Choose a home in a friendly neighborhood

One thing that an assisted living facility does provide seniors is built-in socialization. Many seniors struggle with isolation and loneliness, and living in a special community can often alleviate this. If you want to age in place in your own home, however, it’s vital that you move to a neighborhood that gives you the most options to be social. Talk to the neighbors around any potential home buy. Are they friendly? Ask them if the neighborhood is tight-knit, and if there are any neighborhood associations that sponsor parties, cookouts, and other get-togethers. Try to find a neighborhood where you will find new friends and activities to keep you occupied. 

Choose a home that will require minimal modifications

As a senior, there are plenty of specific house features that you may require for comfortable, independent living. It depends on your level of mobility, but you could want anything from a walk-in, no-ledge shower, to non-slip flooring like textured tiles in bathrooms and kitchens, to low or adjustable level countertops, or even reinforced grips and railings throughout the home. You want a home that you can live in for the rest of your life, so it should not only be accommodating for you now but for you in the future as well. You can save money on modifications if you focus on finding a home that will require as few as possible. 

Choose a home that requires little upkeep

The answer to the question Why not just age in place in your current home? is almost always because it’s too large/requires too much upkeep. Seniors moving to a new home are most certainly downsizing, as this helps streamline their entire existence and gets rid of superfluous possessions and space that only serves to tie them down and prevents true independent living. Start downsizing as soon as possible so that you will have a better idea of home much space you’ll need in your new home. Refusing to downsize is a major pitfall for seniors looking to age in place. 

Also, it’s probably not wise to choose a new home with a ton of outdoor upkeep either. Many seniors love to garden, and having enough space for a modest garden is likely all you’ll want. Otherwise you will be working too hard to maintain a large yard - and you’ll most likely have to pay someone to do it as you age. Find a home with a modest yard or work to create one yourself. 

Buy within your means

The perfect home for you is the one you can afford. If you’re a senior living on a fixed or tight income, make sure your mortgage payment doesn’t overextend you. Always be wary of “hidden costs” of homeownership like insurance costs, taxes, maintenance and repair fees, and neighborhood association costs. 

The perfect home for a senior looking to age in place is one they can afford, that accommodates their mobility issues (both present and future), and is in a location where they can be social with friends and neighbors. 

If you are caring for a senior loved one or have considered a career in senior care, Gradschool hub offers a great guide.

Addison


Congratulations to both of our Halloween Colouring Contest winners. Thank you to everyone that entered. We wish everyone could win, it is always so hard to choose the winners. Be sure to watch for our next Colouring Contest to come in the Mail in time for Easter 2021. Best of luck next time!

Mia

How to Boost Your Curb Appeal for a Quick Sale

If you’re preparing your home for the market, pay special attention to your curb appeal. An attractive home exterior and front yard will make an amazing first impression on potential buyers—and may even influence how they view the rest of your home! Upgrading your curb appeal is also one of the easiest and most affordable improvements you can make to your home. But where do you start? Here are some great tips and tricks for instant curb appeal!

Why Does Curb Appeal Matter?

From reducing the length of time your home sits on the market to increasing your sale price, curb appeal will play a very important role in your home sale success.

• Curb appeal is especially important for attracting house-hunters in a buyer’s market.

• Improving your curb appeal is a quick way to increase your home appraisal value.

• From mowing the lawn to cleaning your porch, curb appeal upgrades can help you get the price you want for your home.

• Balance Real Estate Group can help you learn more about the importance of curb appeal when selling your home!

• How to Marie Kondo your outdoor space

Fix Up Your Home Exterior

With a couple of DIY tools and a good ladder, your home exterior will look like new in no time!

• Clean your gutters and downspouts.

• Hand wash your siding to drive away dirt and grime.

• Brighten up your home exterior with a fresh coat of paint. Here is a guide to approximate cost of paint a house.

Redecorate Your Porch

Your front porch is the gateway to your home, so you want it to look attractive and inviting to potential buyers.

• Paint your front door a bold, eye-catching color.

• Repaint or replace worn house numbers.

• Add some greenery with a couple of elegant planters.

Do Some Simple Landscaping

A few simple landscaping tips will turn your front yard into a welcoming outdoor oasis.

• Remove clutter from your yard and mow the lawn.

• Plant a few fresh flowers or shrubs to liven up your yard.

• Mulch your garden beds to keep everything looking neat and tidy.

• Consider illuminating your pathways with landscaping lights.

Sellers on any budget can afford to make a few improvements to their front yard and home exterior. It doesn’t take much to boost your curb appeal! Whether you decide to go all out with a new landscape design or keep things simple with a fresh coat of paint on your front door, the upgrades you make outside are bound to capture the hearts of your potential buyers.

Kitchen Cabinet refresh 

Much like the simple things you can do to improve your curb appeal there are also cost effective tips to refreshing your kitchen cabinets without breaking the bank.

As I write, I am flying home to BC from having just left my eldest daughter to start her residency in Ontario where she will officially start her life. She keeps telling her Dad and I that she has been on her own for years already. She has while she was at school abroad, but this is different and one day she will understand what we mean….Home will always be where we are, but she will always go back to her home now, the home she is building on her own. 

It is a right of passage, we all go thru it I know….but it doesn’t make this day any easier for us. She would laugh and say why are you writing this Mom, it is just making you cry and I will see you again in less than 3 months when we are back in Ontario again…but it isn’t just that we won’t see her smiling face every day…it isn’t that we won’t hear her non stop chatter…its that she has officially flown the coop to make her way on her own…without us. We are now just spectators in her story now. 

My tears are bittersweet, as we are so proud of her…but knowing she is on her own now….its official she no longer needs us the way she always has. I get it she will always need us. They always do in some way or another and we will always be there for both of our girls. But we can no longer shelter her from harm, she will have to figure out the many challenges life brings her way on her own.

When you are young and starting a family, everyone always tells us to cherish every moment because before you know they will be all grown up. When we were young, I don’t know how much we truly understood the truth to those words. Somehow time goes by faster and faster the older we get and now we are telling the people we know those same words. 

Somewhere along the way, life gets in the way and you find the years have gone by…where did they go? It seems like only yesterday we were her whole world. There was nobody more important than her Mommy and Daddy. Then slowly as she ventured out into the world, her world started to grow and she gathered friends and experiences along the way. In the beginning they are so dependant on us, that just being held in our arms soothes them. They are small enough we can kiss all their fears away and rock them to sleep. Now she must find her own way, it is no longer our job to protect her….It is her job to find out what the world has in store for her. 

We are so proud of you Shantelle for reaching for the stars and never giving up even when things seemed so impossible. You made it and your journey is only just beginning. 

We taught our children, how to become strong, independent women as my husband always says. We can be proud that is exactly what we did! 

I leave you with these words, like so many before me and so many will say one day when their children have grown….”Cherish EVERY moment, put away your phone and work, turn off the TV and just be with them…listen to what they have to say. No matter how unimportant you may think it is or how busy you are. Little ones can talk about the silliest of things, make them feel important. Wrap your arms around them and hold them tight because one day they will grow up and you will never get those days back again!” Hug your little and not so little ones…every day! Don’t forget to not only tell them you love them, but show them you do. 

Supporting local as I mentioned last week is something we are trying to really promote. Saturday night date night was ordering from Zythos greek restaurant in Walnut Grove. As self proclaimed foodies…I think we are probably greek food snobs too…because we are very picky with what we consider good greek food. We usually first judge good Greek food by their tzaziki, if its not fresh and tasty then it likely means the rest of the food won’t be either…Nine times out of ten we are right. Even though the tzaziki was not our absolute favourite (we are hard to please, I know) it was still pretty good. The rest of the food from Zythos was pretty good too. We will definitely order from them again and hopefully one day soon get to eat in their dining room. 

Then for Mothers Day my request was to order and pick up Cartems donuts and  Earnest ice cream. What a treat too. We had been wanting to try Earnest Ice Cream and when we saw that Cartems was helping to support another local business we of course couldn’t help but get them both. It was Mothers day and OMG those donuts were delicious we shared a little bite of each one. If you are looking to order curbside pick up you will need to order in advance as they have been booked up a few days out. 

I realized I think I like the yeast donuts best and the salted caramel from Earnest Ice Cream was my favourite. My daughter loved the oatmeal brown sugar. We couldn’t order just one…bet you can’t order just one flavour too.

Bettina

Happy International Nurses Day to my beautiful niece who just graduated from nursing school, to all of our clients that are nurses working on the front line during these very difficult times and to all the amazing nurses out there. 

My niece has a spirit like no other and will be that nurse that makes you smile when she walks into a room. We are so very proud of her and all the nurses out there.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms, Grandmas and mother figures in our lives...even the pet moms. From a team of women at the moment, we want to wish everyone a day full of Happy memories with our loved ones...however that may be. 

As I went for a walk today with my husband I came across this beautiful bunch of tulips that a very sweet family put out in honour of their mother that recently passed away. I had to snap a photo to share the amazing generosity displayed by a family looking to brighten someone else's day...asking them to take a bloom. I did not take one...but it did brighten my day and put a smile on both of our faces. Our warmest wishes go out to that family and all the families that cannot spend Mother's Day with the special women in their lives. 

We are trying to support the restaurant industry on the weekends…so each week we pick a different place to order from on Saturday nights. Used to be our date night, well now it is an in night but with no cooking. We have had some not so great meals though and are really looking forward to some semblance of normalcy so that we can go back to enjoying a meal freshly made in a restaurant. But for now, we order in….

Last weekend once again it was looking like our order was not going to make it in a timely manner which would have meant for a terrible meal. Instead of dealing with the delivery company we called Cactus Club Langley directly. Sure enough our meals had been sitting there for quite some time. I let the manager know I did not want the meal if it hadn't been picked up. She assured me that they were going to remake our meals and then if the driver was not willing to wait for our order to be ready ..that they would arrange another driver or one of their staff to deliver it to us. Not only did she assure me that she would get us fresh meals, she even followed up to let us know when it was on its way. They even popped in a couple cookies for the wait. 

Reason for this blog is to give a shout out to Cactus Club Langley for going above and beyond to make sure our order was done well. My family was not very hopeful and we were all very pleasantly surprised. We encourage you to pick up or see if the restaurant you are ordering from actually delivers themselves instread of using the delivery companies. Small businesses are losing money because of the delivery companies and when business is already down, this is likely hurting their bottom line quite a bit.

I won't name the delivery company as we have had back luck with them all. 

Bettina

Do you have pieces of wood left over from a renovation project that you just don’t know how to get rid of? Maybe you have numerous bags filled with yard clippings and tree branches that were removed during your backyard cleanup. It’s a good chance that you have these kinds of things just lying around, taking up valuable space, but you simply don’t know what to do with it. You could have a bonfire for sure (if you live in an area that allows them) but that only makes a bigger mess of ashes and waste to get rid of. Plus, you would need to have a decent sized backyard bonfire to get rid of an accumulation of wood.

That is why you should look at investing in a wood chipper shredder or at least renting one to clean up around your yard. You’re probably asking yourself why you would need a wood chipper shredder to get rid of the wood you have built up considering it only makes a different kind of wood product, but these chips are actually easier to get rid of in the long run. How? Well that’s the purpose of this post – to let you know exactly how you can get rid of and use wood chips in future endeavors.

Garden Mulch and Compost  

It is no small secret that making your own compost and mulch for your garden beds will save you money and provide valuable nutrients to your plants. Compost is made from decayed organic matter that ferments to grow nutritious bacteria that seeps into the soil of your garden beds and encourages flowers, fruits, veggies and even herbs or shrubs to grow big and strong. The use of mulch is similar but instead of providing nutrients, it acts as the protector of the garden and becomes a buffer between your plants and temperature changes, wind speed changes and even pests that could destroy or harm your garden.

One of the key ingredients in compost and mulch is wood chips. Wood chips for this purpose can be purchased at your local garden center or nursery but why not instead make your own out of wood scraps and tree trimmings that are laying around your backyard? With a few simple steps, all the scrap lumber left over from replacing the back patio is reduced down to chips and can be used in both the making of compost and mulch.

Pets Love It

Most indoor pets that are in the critter family – think hamsters, gerbils, mice, etc. love a snug warm bed of wood chips. Most times, this style of wood chips can be purchased at any pet store, but it can be expensive in the long run. Using your own personal wood chipper shredder eliminates this expense and helps you eliminate clutter around your yard.

Look at a wood chipper shredder with various attachments to change the size of the wood chips so that you can get a contrast in terms of size for your furry friend’s cage. Also, having a stock of wood chips on hand, dried out and ready to go, means that whenever it’s time to change the bedding their cage? You are on it and ready for action. They had a couple of bathroom accidents or their water container got knocked over and soaked right through? On it.

Bonfire Season and Cold Temperatures

Wood chips, while they won’t heat an entire home or create the type of bonfire needed for s’mores, can still act as a Firestarter in terms of bonfires and home fuel. People have been using wood chips for generations as the base for a warming fire throughout the cold winter night. They don’t burn as long as pieces of wood or lumber, but they are easier to light, start, and maintain a flame with than trying to start a fire from scratch.

Once the pile of wood chips has smoldered and burned, you are left with a glowing bed of coals that will heat and allow the bark of the full chunk of wood to catch. Voila! Your house is toasty, or your s’mores are hot.

Hunting Season

Those who are hunters in terms of moose, bear, deer, or even rabbit meat have been using wood chips for years to smoke their catch and keep it from spoiling. Using clean wood chips that have not been dried out will provide a hunter with a smoldering, smoking fire that penetrates the meet and seals the juices inside for a tasty snack year-round!

Conclusion

Wood chipper shredders can be pricey but if you are planning to use one on a fairly regular basis, it would be cheaper in the long run than renting one from your local industrial equipment warehouse. If you only need a wood chipper for the present – then renting is the way to go! Whatever your usage of a wood chipper shredder may be, you now know why it is important to use the wood chips over scrap pieces of lumber.

With the numerous uses of wood chips that were outlined in this post, from fuel to gardening to pet maintenance; it is no wonder that more people are looking into a wood chipper shredder and updated models make them more portable than before. Want to know how they work? Then learn more here.

We shared our winners on Instagram but forgot to share on our website. 

Every year we get so many amazing entries for our Colouring Contests. We wish we could choose them all to win, but we can only choose 2. Our first winner is 12 year old Rachel. She has entered our colouring contest many times over the years, she was definitely due for a win. We are happy she tried one more time. We loved Rachel's creativity this year and knew she had to be one of our winners. She even included our team branding on one of the easter eggs. Thank you again for your entry and Congratulations Rachel, have fun spending your prize.

Our next winner is from Sophia, she also did an amazing job. We love all the pink. Congratulations again Sophia....have fun spending your prize. For everyone else, please watch for our fall newsletter and enter to win our annual Halloween Colouring Contest.